The Separatists 1-6 St. Bedes Club
2007-06-25 18:00
Dave Atkinson
Jordan Coulthard (1)
James Dunlop
Steve Jarvis
James Murray
Christian Van Tilburg
Pre-Match
Dave Atkinson
The (depleted - no substitutes!) team for tonight:
1. David Atkinson
2. Christian Van Tilburg
3. Steve Jarvis (grotty, not 100%)
4. Jordan Coulthard
5. James Murray
6. James Dunlop
This "3-2" will provide more cover for Christian and Steve, with Jordan cutting out attacks in the middle, or forcing them wide. This will also allow Jordan to get the ball forward to Murray or Dunlop.
If Jordan goes forward with a ball, Murray or Dunlop will need to slip in behind Jordan as cover and to receive passes.
Murray and Dunlop will need to drop back and defend when needed.
When we are attacking, Christian and Steve should both err on the side of caution, and hold the middle of the pitch, so that one can intercept a "breaking attack" whilst the other marks other player(s) breaking forward, and watching for any ball over the top.
Although we don't want to give away possession, a quick ball down the middle for someone to run on to may bring a goal or two, so whichever James drops back to defend, the other one may be better lingering to either side of the pitch, so that they can run onto a ball going down the middle.
Again, plenty of talking tonight, please! For my benefit, please be calling for the ball as I am picking it up and getting ready to throw. Even moving towards "space" and pointing.
Post-Match
Christian Van Tilburg
a proud defend, we play some of our best football against top of the table.
DA was awesome, almost god-like, without him it would have been 20-1
DA and JC formation worked and it confused the other team, ie; their front men could mark three people, clever and it gave us space.
JC loved his freedom and JD and JM came back as required.
nice one :-)
Dave Atkinson
From my perspective, I did have a good game, as these guys were very good and very accurate. However, I can't take all the credit as everyone had a good game, with lots of talking and some good hard tackling.
They went 1-0 with a stunning shot early, and Jordan equalised not long after. At about 9 minutes in it was 1-1 and they were getting visibly and audibly worried, unsure how to deal with our 3-2 (or 2-1-2) formation. They did then score two more excellent goals before half-time.
The score should have stayed at 3-1, however, as I was a little disappointed at the three goals I let in after the changeover. However, I think fatigue started to take its toll in the second half a little for the rest of our team.
In summary:
The formation worked well, with Jordan able to roam freely forward when he wanted to, and the two James slotting behind him. Considering we had no subs and Steve wasn't 100% fit, we did very well. Certainly, we were coping well over the first half.
I do wonder whether we would do better to only make substitutions at half-time, as sometimes they do leave us vulnerable for a minute as people slot in. This shouldn't happen, of course, but it is another symptom of our adjustment to playing in this league.
This was a team we were always going to struggle to beat, but the fact we had them worried for five minutes in the first half shows how close we are to getting this right for next season.
We are now bottom, and need to win our last game against Belle Vue to not stay there!
Hail The Separatists!
